Arsenic and Rubies
by Pardra
Summary: X is a pawn, Light is a jerk, and Zero is reprogrammed, but not everything is terrible. At least, it wasn't until the Limiteds came. (Moderately AU, set post X8, pre-Command Mission. There is no iX character tag.)
1. Chapter 1

**Arsenic and Rubies**

 **AN** : Beware of slow introductory chapters. I know, I know, it's not Dreamer or Unlaced. This is an AU sequel to The Skies Hold Fallen Angels oneshot that I _thought_ I had doomed to being just a oneshot a long time ago. Then I got an idea. Anyway, this is actually a birthday giftfic for RandyPandy, so it might not catch everyone's attention. It won't be too long, I think, maybe a few chapters. I don't have it all written out as of right now, even if the majority is somewhat plotted out. It might be a bit confusing. See, like I said, it's a sequel of sorts to a oneshot I wrote, but it isn't the "canon" sequel I was going to write. I realized I don't have the time or the desire to write out the massive epic that would be required for the sequel, so I crammed in most of the information needed for what happened into this chapter.

I am on semi-hiatus due to school.

 ***Pairings:** None, in spite of the origin of some of the characters here. You'll know what I mean when you come to it. It will be explained. Hopefully it isn't a huge turnoff!

Happy birthday, Panda.

 **Disclaimer** : I keep forgetting about these. Megaman belongs to Capcom, regrettably. Frith and Sheol belong to me. Xavier belongs to RandyPandy.

 **Chapter** 1

X pondered the tall unit at his side. It was a peculiar thing for him to ponder, given that he was studiously trying not to _look_ at him. His gaze was instead focused on the city outside his bedroom window. Abel City was his now and it had taken so little effort to take that it was _sad_. His. X's. Of all people to overthrow both military and government to lay claim to a city.

Once he would have been relieved at the lack of fighting, now he was almost disappointed, if only because of all the stress the mere idea of being attacked by the Hunters had caused him. After Zero had fallen they had scattered, running away in fright or defecting. Perhaps defecting wasn't the right word since X had hardly had an army at that point. He only had his weapons, his armors, and three Reploid younglings on his side. Which was probably why Zero had gone after him alone; and then Zero had failed. The Hunters had withdrawn from the city, likely to get reinforcements. He wondered where they were now, and when they would return.

X's fingers twitched around the glass in his hand, his chest tightening with…. Guilt? Something. Zero hadn't failed; he had _hesitated_ because he couldn't kill X. It was almost disappointing. Sparring with Zero used to be so exciting, and it was widely believed among the Hunters that, should the two really go at it, Zero would win. Why did people so easily forget about their past battles? X won. X almost always won; he was better, faster, and more powerful, and yet Zero was hailed as the Hunters' greatest.

Not that any of that mattered anymore. Soon X and Dr. Light would have the rest of the Hunters under their thumb as well. With X gone, Zero _was_ their best. Had been their best. Now he supposed Signas was their best warrior.

X glanced around the room, feeling nothing for it. It was large, fancy, but it felt flat and unlived in with its grey walls and dark furniture. Maybe he would repaint as soon as the city was settled and the humans were no longer cowering in their homes waiting for one of them to swoop down and start ripping them limb from limb. The brunet's head finally tilted toward to the former Hunter beside him, though he never looked the other in the eye. The dark blue of his new uniform looked jarringly cool in place of his usual vivid crimson armor. Zero looked so diminished with his hair cut. Like a shaved lion.

"You promised me." There was no anger or accusation in his voice. He was merely resigned.

Zero probably hadn't expected to have to fulfill that promise. X was supposed to be immune to reprogramming, and to the Virus. The mottled red and green right optic that glowered at him in the mirror every morning proved those beliefs wrong. It had long since been proven that Zero was susceptible to the things X was supposed to be unaffected by; his current state was further proof of that.

"At least you're on my side for once," X said, managing some dry humor. Still, his blond companion didn't reply. X knew Zero was still capable of speech because _he_ had been the one to reprogram his former friend. On Dr. Light's orders, of course.

"You know," he went on, not sure why he was suddenly in such a chatty mood after ignoring his new bodyguard for the entire two days he'd been… reformed. "I bet you think I did this to you to torture you. I didn't, you know. I'm still weak; I had you pinned, I could have shoved your beam saber right between your eyes and that would have been it. But I couldn't do it, obviously, or you would not be here."

Now he had the blond's attention. The proud head tilting toward him in kind; Zero looked older and sterner with his hair short.

"I'm sorry about your hair," he finished lamely. "I know I always threatened to cut it off back when we were Hunters, but I didn't really mean it."

Zero continued to stare at him, his blue eyes unreadable. Once, X would have been unnerved; Zero's reputation of being a vicious and driven Hunter didn't stem from rumor.

"Don't look at me like that," he scolded, crossing one leg over the other as he turned his attention to the window again. It was a lovely view of Abel city; from here, the tallest building in the city, X could see the still smoking ruins of the overpass where he and Zero had encountered the remainder of the 17th unit yesterday. X hadn't recognized any of them.

"We can be miserable together now."

And miserable he had been when this entire fiasco had started. He never would have thought the greatest threat to Earth yet would be contained in a Light Capsule. Sometimes Mavericks were right. Sometimes X was too naïve.

"What happened?" Zero's voice was as low as he remembered it, rumbling through X's chest.

"So you remembered how to talk, did you?" X asked him lazily, rolling his head toward his companion but not looking at him. "After ignoring me for so long?"

"It's been two days, not a week, you drama queen," Zero scowled, reaching up to rub between his eyes as if trying to soothe away a headache. X sympathized. "I was hoping to learn something about the situation other than the obvious, but all you've done is _ramble."_

"I'm bitter and old, I'm entitled to ramble," X told him, taking a sip of his water.

"Sounds more like you just want to talk to someone," Zero said, abandoning his new station as loyal body guard and dropping into the seat adjacent to his. He sounded dazed, and he shook as if he wanted to fight but was being held back. X knew he did want to fight and that he was being held back. It was all X's fault. "I knew you didn't turn on us of your own free will."

He wanted to rub away the ache in his chest. "Shut up. If it weren't for you and your precious Hunters we wouldn't be in this mess."

"You tell me to shut up but you reply anyway," Zero pointed out, as infuriating as always. "We'll work up to that then. So who are they?"

X couldn't seem to smooth the frown off his face. "Who is 'they'?"

"Yesterday, when you made me play bait—" Nice try, Zero, those Hunters had it coming. He felt no guilt. "—there was another unit there during the ambush. Tall, blond, tan skin?"

There was an edge to Zero's voice and X knew why before Zero continued. "He looked similar to me. His signature was close enough to mine that neither I nor the other Hunters knew he was there. You have some explaining to do."

X tried not to smile at the confusion in Zero's voice. The blond knew _what_ the mystery unit was, but not _why_. "His name is Frith, he's my creation, based on my schematics, as well as yours."

Zero didn't splutter unless he was truly frustrated and at ease. Right now he was tense as he leaned toward X in his seat. "Why?"

X turned to give his companion a deadpan stare. "Because that makes him an ideal soldier. He has brothers. An older twin unit named Sheol, and a younger brother named Xavier."

Twins. The small brunet watched the former Hunter trying to come to terms with the knowledge that he was a creator (through build). It wasn't uncommon for friends to share schematics, as it was. During a lull in Maverick activity, back before X wasn't ashamed to have been a Hunter, someone in the aerial unit had made a newbuilt with the combined schematics of almost every other unit member. Reploids that were built were vastly superior to their mass-produced brethren, and 'created' units (which were growing in popularity) were above even them. They were more stable, less vulnerable to viruses, and they had a family.

If a military setting where your parent and sibling could be ripped away from you at any moment could be considered a proper family for a child. Unfortunately, there just wasn't much in the way of options for Reploids these days. Yet.

"Soldier?" Zero's voice snapped his out of his reverie.

"Dr. Light was aware that I wouldn't be able to take on the Hunters alone, Armors aside," X explained. "He suggested I build them on the pretense of keeping me from getting lonely."

And there was the magic name. "Dr. Light? Your creator is dead, he's been dead for over a hundred years."

"And yet some of his survived through the capsules," X supplied him with some vague answer. He watched his friend's features harden in thought, the dim light making him look aged. Zero wasn't stupid.

"I remember you telling me that's where you got your armors from," Zero said slowly. "And that Light left you a message in every capsule. That's just a recording though."

X shook his head slowly. "This one, the last one, it was different."

"Tell me about it," Zero commanded, and suddenly there was a commlink prompt. X hesitated, wondering if he trusted Zero enough to allow the intimate exchange of information. And then he remembered Zero couldn't lay a finger on him unless he allowed it. X had the good grace to feel sick as he began memory file transfers.

And so began an abbreviation of the most exciting months of X's long life.

 **~ X ~**

 _X had received many Armor programs before; he hadn't thought twice about downloading what his father's capsule had to offer. If Zero had found him, X lamented, none of this would have happened. The capsule had been hidden so far down in the old subway system that there was next to no chance he would have found it had he not been trapped. It didn't look any different from the countless others he'd stepped into, but the lack of a greeting from the AI inside should have warned him that something was wrong._

 _He had downloaded a number of full armor programs, pleasantly surprised to find full armors rather than pieces. X had examined each one closely, trying to decide which one he should activate first of the eight. Eight armors. He hadn't noticed that the chattiest program, one that introduced itself as the Valkyrie Armor, seemed… off. He had just been glad for the company as he waited for rescue. When rescue didn't come and his autorepair systems failed to finish his repairs due to lack of energy, X had started to get anxious and frightened. He supposed that was how Valkyrie started to worm its way into his head. He hadn't noticed the convenient feeding of his fears, the gentle commands, the way more and more of his programs stopped responding to him. The mottling of his right eye was likely the result of his programming being altered, because X knew he wasn't infected with the Virus. He'd been too tired, too frightened. Or too naïve._

 **~X ~**

"And then what happened?" Zero asked, looking grim.

X shrugged and didn't go further with his story, though there was still much more left to tell. "You can guess. The Valkyrie program turned out to be a comprehensive AI based on Dr. Thomas Light. It contains all or most of his memories. Shortly after the LWNs, my creations, were activated, he tasked me with creating a shell for him, so he's unable to hear you now, at least. Or me. He's different from what I expected."

He didn't try to keep the disappointment and confusion from his voice.

"So that's who this Dr. Light person is. And he's…trying to reprogram his own creation and take over the world?" The blond's nose wrinkled. X didn't have to hear it to know he was thinking about how unlikely that sounded.

And yet here they were.

"Two of those Armors are extensive, aggressive antiviral programs." He let the implications hang in the air. Why had Thomas, who lived in an age prior to the Reploids and the Maverick Virus crisis, created something like that?

Zero opened his mouth, his incredulous, confused expression promising dozens of questions he wouldn't be able to answer. He wanted to be able to answer them, he just couldn't.

"I don't know anything more about him, or what he wants other than you and I and the LWNs taking out any conceivable threat to him." And there wasn't anything they could do about it.

There was nothing Zero could do about it. X…

He turned to frown down at the city, already awash in lights from the streetlamps. Other than the overpass from the fight yesterday, not a single other building had been damaged and no humans had been displaced, except for in this building. X doubted any sane human would want to board with an insane program, an apathetic former Hunter and his disgruntled bodyguard, and three rowdy newbuilts. Was this really so bad? The Hunters had been corrupt. He'd known that for a long time, Zero had begrudgingly admitted it as well. Even Signas, had X been able to contact him, would have agreed, he knew it. No one had been killed, except for a few Hunters. No civilians harmed, nor property destroyed. As far as he knew, Dr. Light's only goal was wiping out the Virus and "guiding" humanity and Reploidkind alike. But there was something wrong here as well. X and his children, and Zero were all toys to him. And yet… He glanced down at his drink but didn't pick it up, conveniently turning his face fully away from Zero.

X was faced with the uncomfortable revelation that he was no longer under "Dr. Light"'s thumb, and yet he didn't want to do anything at all to stop this.

—

 **AN:** Reviews are nice, though I know this might be a bit too bland or confusing to garner much interest. They really do encourage me to write and they really make my day. You all should be seeing more content from me soon!


	2. Bitter(sweet)

**Arsenic and Rubies**

 **Chapter 2**

 **AN** : -insert same excuses as always here-. I'm going to be gone all day tomorrow, so I thought I would post a chapter of _something_ before my trip. Though, I'm going to guess only one person was really looking forward to an update of Arsenic! Ah, well, I have plans for the other fics. It's nearly 12:30 and I have to get up at 6, so I hope this isn't riddled with errors. Reviews are nice.

 **Bitter(sweet)**

Zeros days were now mostly about X. Protecting X was what he was supposed to do, but X hadn't been called out to the field at all since a few days ago, so now he did his best to keep both X sane and himself from destroying furniture out of boredom. Their relationship was anything but stable now, or healthy, and their conversations were frequently peppered with barbs. And they usually ended in arguments now, like this one. In retrospect, digging at an unstable X with questionable morals was probably not the wisest thing he could have done. He wasn't sure why, but his instincts told him that still X wasn't quite as different as he seemed to be, which was why he suffered no worse than being banished from X's room. He didn't think it was really his fault; when X had lapsed into a brooding silence that he had endured until he could stand the emotionally oppressive atmosphere, he had told the small Reploid in no uncertain terms that he was too old for a Goth phase. The look of intense disappointment X leveled him with had made him smirk; yes, he was always rather proud of himself when he wheedled X properly.

He didn't take it badly when X pushed him from the room. At that point they both needed their space. X wanted to brood and Zero wanted to think about what X had told him, mostly bits and pieces won from wheedling sessions. They were both relieved that their relationship wasn't in _shambles_ , even after the reprogramming. Zero was more relieved that X was still… X, even if he wasn't _his_ X. But given what he'd been through lately, that was to be expected. Oh well, they could deal with that when the time came. Once this "Dr. Light" was dealt with. He just hadn't figured out how to do that yet.

Zero straightened himself out and glanced both ways down the dim corridor. Humans had lived here not long ago, though he couldn't recall if it had been some sort of business building or a hotel that had been converted. There was no shortage of bedrooms on this floor, he'd been told. X rambled a lot back when Zero had been giving him the silent treatment. A lot more than he willingly told Zero now. He almost missed pretending to be a drone because then at least X instigated the conversations.

The sound of voices made him freeze, his muscles tensing. Were they being invaded? ….No, there was no way any competent assassin would be _laughing_ like that. Zero relaxed, remembering the newbuilts. X's children. X's children with some of _his_ programming. The image of the big blond that had looked like him came to Zero's mind. Would they attack him if they saw him? No, that was stupid. They would know by now that he was X's bodyguard, right?

Zero peered into the room, finding the three in what was probably once a lounge or break room. It was lavish in a boring way, with a decently sized table that looked like some modern artsy type style that Axl would probably recognize, a potted plant in the corner away from the counter and stove, and a locked smart fridge. Well…. It _had_ been locked. Now it looked like it had been mauled by a bear, and he had a feeling he knew who the culprit was. The big blond was grinning broadly as he spoke to the tall unit beside him, his expression smug. That one; he'd known he would be trouble. Another blond, this one slim and pale. Beside the animated, grinning blond, this one seemed like a statue, his face and body unmoving. Then there was the little one. He looked… like X. His hair was a deep shade of black, but shone blue under the right light. His eyes were a deeper green than X's, but the same round shape, with the same sickeningly sweet gleam of happiness that the original's had been missing.

The former Hunter's curiosity got the better of him. He was pushing forth a greeting before he allowed himself to be seen. The _newbuilt that could have been X's clone_ recoiled from the brush of an unfamiliar mind against his own, physically flinching in his seat. The big blond, Frith, snarled at him, an animalistic warning, his thick blond hair an impressive mane as he stepped toward Zero, then paused. Zero watched all of the rage go out of the young unit, leaving only puzzled wariness.

Zero opened his mouth to say something. _His son_ spoke first. "It's you."

The other two glanced at Frith and something seemed to pass between the three of them. He saw understanding in the youngest one, but the slim one was still unreadable. He dared to move closer to them. "So I did recognize you. Frith, right? Which means you must be Sheol and….. Xavier."

The X mini-me ducked down a bit, and then frowned suspiciously at Zero. He was adorable. So adorable that he wanted to ruffle his hair. But if he was anything like X then Zero would only get smacked in return for it. "Cute."

The dark haired boy squeaked, startled or outraged. He couldn't have been more than a few months old. Was this kid really going to fight? Come to think of it, none of the boys were very old. Saying that the older two were a year old was generous and unlikely. They had older AIs than the smaller one, but in regards to their processors, they all seemed more or less the same age.

"Yeah," the darker blond spoke up, moving subtly toward the space between Xavier and Zero. It seemed Frith deemed him untrustworthy around the tiny thing. "And you're Zero, our other creator?"

"I didn't have anything to do with making you, but your programming matches mine in places, I'm told," Zero nodded. "So yeah, I guess I have kids."

Zero had never wanted kids. It was surreal to think about. He'd never particularly cared about having kids, though X had always said he wanted to build a few when things settled down. _This isn't settled down, X_.

If anything, the state of the world was worse because, for once, they had a truly competent enemy, who had X on his side. And Zero too now. He was still sore about that. And still sore that X had rubbed his nose in it. His X would never do that. It was such a strange situation. X seemed like his X, but at the same time there were a lot of quirks and differences. Was it the reprogramming? The trauma?

He watched the bigger of the two blonds lean toward him.

It all felt bizarre. He half expected to wake up and find he'd been subjected to an invasive simulation test again. He hated those things. He hated it when they'd been introduced as random, mandatory tests if the Commanders thought you'd been acting suspicious. It started messing when a Reploid's head, made it hard for them to tell what was real or not, and, ironically, weakened their mental state and made them more susceptible to contracting the virus. Thankfully, being a Commander, he didn't have to worry too much about them, only if he'd done something questionable. And with no X to show off to, or tick off, he'd been fairly subdued lately.

Zero reached out to firmly nudge the younger unit away. The intent staring had started to unnerve him. Hadn't X taught them any manners?

The other blond smiled, a mischievous grin that made him think more of Axl than of X or himself. Was it possible that there was some of Axl's programming in there? Nah, even X wasn't that self-loathing, even now, to subject himself to a younger version of Axl.

"Oh, so you're not in standby."

"I was thinking," Zero clarified stiffly. He didn't know how he felt about these kids, but he knew he didn't want them in his face.

The other blond tilted his head. Zero had an issue with newbuilts. X had always found them adorable, but they unnerved Zero. The cute displays never kept him from the knowledge that this was still a Reploid, a Reploid with full strength, if not finesse, and half the morality of an adult Reploid. They were dangerous. There was a reason humans were rarely allowed around the soldiers when they were first activated. Humans, and plastic or wooden furniture.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Your Dad," he grunted. He knew he had made a mistake when he saw wicked glee alight in the kid's eyes. This brat really was another Axl; he could practically hear the teasing. Time to nip this behavior in the bud. "No. He's changed. He's not himself anymore, and I don't know what to think of him."

Instantly, the younger unit's expression sobered and became guarded. He almost looked hurt, if the slight furrowing of his brows was to be trusted. He was a handsome Reploid, with skin darker than his or X's, giving him the look of someone who spent a lot of time outside in the sun, enjoying himself. He looked healthy and vibrant, unlike most newbuilts he saw, who came online with some knowledge of what they were getting into with their expendable little lives. And yet this one _did_ know he was just a soldier, a pawn for someone else's ideals, like Zero was now, because he had _fought for them_ only a few days ago. Was this Zero's programming at work, or had "Dr. Light" sunk his claws into them?

Frith was pouting. If this kid wanted him to start taking him out to baseball games and training him then he was sorely mistaken. Zero didn't feel bad about being distant with a stranger, even if they did share some of his programming. ….Maybe a little.

The former Hunter waved his hand dismissively before the younger Reploid could speak. "I'm a little sore about being reprogrammed," he said by way of explanation. Hopefully the babies would catch the distinct undertone of "leave it alone".

There was a collective wince. The tiny one swung his legs and looked down at his lap, Frith rubbed the back of his head and glanced at the sad fridge. Sheol stared unflinchingly, but Zero couldn't get any sense for what the kid was thinking. Oh well, he'd had enough of them for one day. The demoted Hunter grit his teeth and turned on his heel, painfully conscious of the lack of hair swirling around him as he left his unwarranted "creations" behind. No, maybe he wasn't done picking at X for the day. There was a lot left that he wanted to say to his old friend before he said it to the newbuilts instead.

There was a new link between he and X now, one that surpassed friendship. Zero sneered as he paced through the halls, boots clicking sharply on the floor. It was so damn dead in here. An entire building, sound, and with running water and electricity, and only a handful of people inside it, it felt wrong. Zero didn't know where they kept the deserters, but it wasn't this place. Maybe he would ask X when he finally went back to his new master, if he could even remember how to get there. Oh, he knew how, of course, he recalled the way perfectly. But now he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to confront X, if the twinge in his gut was anything to go by. The reprogramming? Or something else? How was he supposed to know anymore? X was good at what he did, and he had reprogrammed a few Reploids that had been irreparably damaged, but not taken over by the Maverick Virus. He did his best to make everything fit smoothly together, so they couldn't tell what thoughts were intrusive and which ones were the result of their natural programming and personality data.

 _Damn you, X._ The anger was hollow, bubbling ineffectively in his stomach. Reprogramming? He had no idea what he really felt anymore. The sound of his footsteps in the dead building were suddenly thunderous against his audio receptors. The blond Reploid slowed and lightened his steps, coming to a halt in an inner corridor. There were no windows here, only the faint light of the emergency exit signs and the few lights that had been left on in some nearby rooms. He was breathing hard. It was a mostly unneeded action in Reploids, except for cooling purposes. Zero hadn't realized he'd started to overheat. He put a hand on his chest, feeling his core throbbing as if he had nearly gotten sheared in half by a beam saber. He wouldn't mind sparring right now, but the only person he had to spar with was _him_. And right now he didn't know what he would do if he saw X; suddenly his mind and body were not his own anymore, and it was X, champion of Reploid rights, who had butchered him.

With a soundless snarl, he began to walk again. He passed by open door after opened door without really noticing where he was going or what he wanted to do. All he knew was that his core wouldn't stop pounding. At once something changed, a flash of pale blue and yellow caught his eye as he passed a doorway, but he didn't stop, realizing immediately when he'd glimpsed. No. Zero was not ready to face anyone, especially not him. He did not want to go back there—

"Zero. I would like to speak with you," Valkyrie called out, his voice pleasant, but commanding. There went any control he'd had over the situation. X had told him enough that he knew likes and maybes meant anything but what they seemed to.

Zero paused for a moment before turning and walking into the room the weird Reploid had claimed for his own. The white and silver color scheme was almost overwhelmingly pale and pristine, a fake fireplace, paintings, a _chandelier._ Yes, it was quite a bit more lavish than X's quarters were, even if the view was more or less the same. The view… nearly the same angle and everything. Had he gone right past X's room already? Oh well, it wasn't like he'd been looking for X, he'd wanted… something.

The former Hunter eyed Valkyrie with barely disguised distaste. He was slim, quite a bit taller than X was, but not as tall as Zero. He was blond and golden-eyed, and had a serene smile on his face that made Zero's hackles lift. This seemed nothing at all like the kindly, stout human he had seen in old newspaper articles in X's room. This guy really claimed to be Dr. Light? And worse, X didn't argue with him about it! X could be ridiculous sometimes though.

There was also the possibility that X, also reprogrammed, couldn't argue about it.

The blond unit was standing, his back to the windows. He was an almost blinding spot of blue against nerve-wracking white. And he was smiling in a way that made Zero want to reach for his saber…. Which he did not have.

"How have you been since your operation?"

Well that was to the point. "….Fine."

If Valkyrie took offense at his flat, dry tone, he gave no notion of it, nodding. "Good, good, it might take some adjustment, but I'm sure you'll bounce back. I trust X went over the possible side effects, headaches, confusion, and the like?"

"He wouldn't need to, I already know them," Zero answered, almost impatient. That weird, uncomfortable energy was back, making his synthmuscles tingle with the need to move.

"Ah. And did you meet the children? Outside of Frith, of course," Valkyrie went on, ignoring Zero's twitchiness entirely. "Sheol isn't much of a talker, but Frith does enough of that for both of them."

Something in him felt uncomfortable, moreso than before. There was so much wrongness associated with Valkyrie. X, his reprogramming, the newbuilts, the Hunters falling. It was all his doing. Zero wished he would just crawl right back in to whatever hole he had crawled out of.

"And Xavier! What a little doll! I can't lie, he's my favorite," Valkyrie chuckled. Zero's lip curled; he hoped Valkyrie never laughed again. "He's a bit different from his brothers… next to nothing of you in him. He was more of an experimental design."

"He's partially organic, a bioroid. I noticed." Now he was just annoyed. Valkyrie seemed oddly focused on the runt. What was he getting at? _Let me leave already._

"X went a different angle with this one, but I was impressed by his work designing the other two, so I gave him my blessing for the bioroid."

"X had the patience to incubate a bioroid. Or you did. Congrats, do you want a medal?" Different angle? X had been talking about bioroids for years. Let Valkyrie get annoyed. Maybe he would get to work off some of his tension.

Only Valkyrie laughed and made a shooing motion with one elegant hand. "No, no, don't let me keep you here. I only wanted to see how you were doing and chat a bit about your sons."

That was all the encouragement he needed to turn around and begin his retreat, only slowing a little when Valkyrie began talking again. At least it seemed to be mostly to himself this time.

"Xavier must have looked a lot like X before he was brought online." What in the world was he talking about now? Please, Asimov, not another insane Maverick overlord. But he was free now, relatively speaking. He was in the hallway and he could resume his… patrolling. Yes, patrolling.

"I wonder whose child Xavier was."

Zero suddenly felt cold, pausing once more outside Valkyrie's door. His processor struggled with the broken information Valkyrie had divulged, and what conclusions it kept drawing made him feel ill. Suddenly, spending time with the newbuilts or Valkyrie instead of X didn't seem like such a bad idea.

—-

AN: I am off now. Reviews are very much appreciated!


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